Official Name: | Cambridge |
Other Name: | (Cambridge Station) |
Settlement Type: | Village |
Pushpin Map: | Nova Scotia |
Pushpin Label Position: | right |
Pushpin Map Caption: | Location of Cambridge in Nova Scotia |
Population As Of: | 2021[1] |
Population Total: | 703 |
Population Blank1 Title: | Change (2016-2021) |
Population Blank1: | -18.9% |
Subdivision Type: | Country |
Subdivision Type1: | Province |
Subdivision Type2: | County |
Subdivision Name2: | Kings |
Established Title: | Establishment |
Coordinates: | 45.05°N -102°W |
Elevation M: | 28 |
Postal Code: | B0P 1G0 |
Cambridge is a community on the Cornwallis River in Kings County, Nova Scotia, Canada, located 12 kilometres west of Kentville. It is administratively part of the village of Cornwallis Square. According to one source, the community was named after Cambridge, England.[2] while another holds it was named for Cambridge, Massachusetts.[3]
The community first appears on maps about 1795. A large estate by the Marshall Family along the old post road (later Highway No. 1) was the first major farm in the area. The first school in 1867, followed by successively larger schools including one of the province's first consolidated rural high schools, Central Kings Rural High in 1952. A separate part of the village grew up around the railway north of Highway No. 1, known until the late 20th century as "Cambridge Station"[4] The arrival of the Windsor and Annapolis Railway in 1869 stimulated trade and farming. The first apple warehouse was built in 1885, one of the first in Nova Scotia, joined by two others and an apple evaporator and canning plant. A Mi'kmaw reserve was founded just north of the station in 1880 and is today known as the Annapolis Valley First Nation.[5] Railway service ended in January 1990 when the Dominion Atlantic Railway was abandoned west of Coldbrook, Nova Scotia and the tracks were removed in March 1990.[6]
Cambridge is home to an elementary school (Cambridge and District Elementary), a regional high school (Central Kings Rural High), and the Kings County Christian School. It is also technically home to the Waterville/Kings County Municipal Airport and Waterville Michelin tire plant. Cambridge is also home to the Annapolis Valley First Nation Reserve[7] which was formally known as Cambridge Indian Reserve No.32.
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Cambridge had a population of 703 living in 280 of its 288 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 867. With a land area of, it had a population density of in 2021.[8]